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Nancy Wesley
Nancy Wesley is a fictional character from the NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives and has appeared on its web series spin-off Days of Our Lives: The Digital Series. She is portrayed by Patrika Darbo. Nancy was created when the serial's producer Tom Langan wanted a "real woman" as opposed to a "super-skinny" actress to join the cast. Casting director, Fran Bascom contacted Darbo with the offer and she accepted. Langan did not require the actress to audition for the role. Background Nancy is introduced as the wife of Craig Wesley (Kevin Spirtas) and is described as a loyal spouse. Langan liked the dynamic between the two characters; he believed that "handsome" Craig loved the "not super-thin" Nancy very much. Darbo has spoken about the characters sharing a mutual love and credits her own rapport with Spirtas to the character's popularity. Nancy has been featured in story-lines involving breast cancer, a feud with Mike Horton (Roark Critchlow), getting run over by a truck and having a child to provide her leukemia stricken daughter, Chloe Lane (Nadia Bjorlin) with a bone marrow transplant. The character also portrayed a storyline which was part of a promotional campaign for food franchiser Mrs. Fields and charity Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The character has been met with positive reviews. Mark Edward Wilows from the Post-Tribune reported that critics were "raving" about the "pivotal role" Nancy. Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times said that Nancy was the most notable celebration of larger-size females on daytime television. Larger female viewers have praised the character because they felt there was a place for themselves on television. For her portrayal of Nancy, Darbo has won a newcomer award at the Soap Opera Digest Awards and has been nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award. Creation and casting Darbo was hired by Days of our Lives in May 1998. The serial's casting director, Fran Bascom told Carol Bidwell of Los Angeles Daily News that their producer, Tom Langan wanted "a real woman, not one of these super-skinny actresses" to join the cast. Bascom said that she immediately thought of accredited actress Darbo. Langan approved Darbo's hiring and decided that she did not need to audition for the role. Nancy is introduced as the wife of Craig Wesley (Kevin Spirtas). Bascom said that Langan "liked the fact that this handsome man loves this woman who's not super-thin - really, really loves her, and the fans love it, too." Darbo told of Lilana Novakovich of The Record that when Bascom asked her to join the cast, she thought it would be a small role involving food. Darbo worried that producers were not familiar with her and expected someone to say "Oh, my God, you're not who we thought you were. Thank you for coming." In 2003 it was announced that the Wesley family were being written out of the series. Darbo has said "was some of the most fun I’ve ever had. It was also the hardest work I’ve ever done." On November 16, 2012, it was announced that Darbo will be returning to the role, with her onscreen return being sometime in early 2013. The actress, who was welcomed back on set, said that Nancy is "going to be supporting her daughter; whether she’s right or whether she’s gone. Family takes care of family." Of working with Bjorlin again, Darbo said they "just fell right back into it." When asked if Nancy would be different this time around or "the same conniving woman she always was", Darbo said "The bitch is back. Do not mess with mine. Don’t mess with anybody who belongs to me." Additionally, she explained "Nancy’s not a runner. Nancy sort of just saunters in, looks around, and makes a plan. She’s like the queen of the spiders. She sits in the middle of her web, weaving and weaving." Darbo returned to the soap again several times from 2016-17. Characterization Darbo told Mark Edward Wilows of the Post-Tribune that she was enjoying playing Nancy as daytime roles are challenging. She felt that she was a role model playing Nancy, showing that weight does not matter. Darbo stated that she would never play a character that would make a mockery of weight issues. She was "glad" that Nancy broke the stereotype associated with overweight roles. Nancy is described as the "cunning and manipulative" wife to Craig. Nancy works as the head volunteer at University Hospital, which she does to keep watch over her husband, to whom she is "extremely loyal". She would "stop at nothing" to remove Mike Horton (Roark Critchlow) from the role Chief of Staff and have Craig take his place. Their early storyline focused on hatching a number of manipulative schemes to ruin Mike's career. Darbo enjoyed working alongside Spirtas and stated that "I couldn't have asked for a better leading man". Their characters have "one of those marriages" where the is mutual love, but she is fine with him flirting with others. Darbo added that Craig treats Nancy "like a queen 'cause her daddy has the money', but there is an attraction between them." Darbo believed that Nancy's success had much to do with her rapport and "great chemistry" with Spirtas. She added that "I believe we are the real married couple that the audience can relate to. We're a team, we do everything together". Spirtas told Novakovich that he was pleased that Nancy is an "unconventional wife in both appearance and attitude". He branded her as a "glamorous and evil villainess". The actor was also happy to be working with Darbo because she did not have the "typical" soap opera appearance. He added that "there is something to be said about our dynamic". When Spirtas first joined the series, his character was introduced separately from Nancy. In 2002, food franchiser Mrs. Fields teamed up with Days of our Lives and charity Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to host a cookie bake off. As a tie in with the event, the serial introduced a similar storyline. Nancy and Alice Horton (Frances Reid) have a cookie-baking contest; Darbo told a reporter from Reuters that "it'll be kind of a cook-war". Darbo said that it was a partnership between the businesses to gain a greater audience and benefit the charity. She also revealed that the storyline would have a further tie in storyline, as her on-screen daughter Chloe Lane (Nadia Bjorlin) is diagnosed with leukemia. Nancy was "devastated" when she discovers that Chloe's biological father cannot provide his bone marrow. It was later revealed that Nancy and Craig would have another child to provide a lifesaving bone marrow transplant for Chloe. Bjorlin told Novakovich that she bonded well with Darbo and Spirtas and they gave her advice on her acting. Storylines |-|1998–2005= Nancy is the conniving, manipulating wife of Dr. Craig Wesley. She was determined to become Mrs. Chief-of-Staff, and she didn't want to marry Mike. She wanted to push Mike out of the position so her husband could take over his rightful place. In the beginning, Nancy was very much daddy's little girl, constantly threatening Craig if he didn't become Chief of Staff, she'd leave, taking her father's money with her. Then she came into her own, scheming on her own and always loving her husband no matter what. With Craig, she planned for Mike to be found in a bad position with a woman at a party. Nancy began pushing Carrie with Mike, but became a confidant to Carrie also, especially in the middle of her own breast cancer scare. Nancy survived her cancer scare, and began pushing Craig to push Ali in her lawsuit against Mike Horton and the hospital. Nancy wanted Craig to be COS more than anything else. He got what he wanted, just in time for another strike to hit their relationship. Chloe Lane, a foster girl Nancy had brought home with her, was in actuality Nancy's daughter, that she had given up for adoption as a teenager. Despite Chloe and Craig both pressing her, Nancy refused to name Chloe's father. Nancy eventually revealed that she had been raped at 16 by her father's business associate, Dr. Frederick Sykes, when it was revealed that Chloe had leukemia, and needed a bone marrow transplant. Brady and Craig were able to discover that Sykes was not, in fact, Chloe's father. Testing proved that Craig was really her father, which left Nancy wracked with guilt at the thought that she and Craig lost so many years with their daughter. To provide Chloe with the best possible donor, Craig and Nancy decided to have another baby. Despite some health problems, Nancy was able to successfully conceive and carry their baby to term, and when the little girl was born, they named her Joy, because that was what she brought to them. Joy was able to donate bone marrow and save her sister's life. When Chloe was healthy, Craig accepted a job in New York. Nancy and Joy moved with him. |-|2013= Nancy returned to Salem in 2013 when Chloe needed her help. Chloe had recently found out that Daniel was the biological father of her baby. So, she wanted the three of them to be a family again. But Daniel was in a relationship with Jennifer. Chloe enlisted Nancy's help in getting Jennifer out of the way. Nancy was glad to come back and butt heads again with the Horton family. Due to an error in the paperwork, Daniel was still not listed as Parker's legal father on Parker's birth certificate, making Chloe his only legal guardian. So, Chloe had Nancy took Parker to Brazil -- a country not known for fairness in custody battles. Then, Chloe told Jennifer to give up Daniel, or Parker would remain out of the country, where Daniel would have no access or legal right to him. Heartbroken, Jennifer agreed. Eventually, Chloe softened in her stance. She saw that Daniel would not come back to her, even with Jennifer out of the way. She asked Nancy to bring Parker back home. Nancy returned to New York and told Chloe that she'd always be around for her if she needed anything. |-|2016-17= Crimes and Misdeeds *Tried to blackmail Mike Horton to get Craig promoted to Chief of Staff *Custodial interference and blackmail - took Parker to Brazil so Chloe could blackmail Jennifer into giving up Daniel Category:Days of our Lives characters Category:Females Category:Characters of the 1990s Category:Characters of the 2010s Category:Wesley Family Category:Days of Our Lives: The Digital Series characters